Legal Project Manager

Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders•Atlanta, GA

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Legal Project Manager (LPM) is responsible for planning and delivery of the firm’s LPM core services for identified large and complex institutional clients. In partnership with client legal operations and internal stakeholders, the LPM supports key components of the client’s matter lifecycle, including scoping support; budget setup and monitoring; as well as financial tracking, forecasting, and billing guideline compliance, all while providing clear, routine reporting and issue escalation. The LPM serves as a client liaison and supports cross-functional integration between attorneys, legal support, and finance, focused on continuous improvement and development of scalable tools, training, and best practice standards that will be leveraged across client teams.

Requirements

Strong knowledge of legal operations and portfolio/matter lifecycle management, including intake, scoping, budgeting/AFA setup, delivery, closeout, and post‑matter review.
Knowledge of tools leveraged within the legal industry including Aderant, CounselLink, Legal Tracker, InTapp, HighQ, and Tableau for reporting and analysis.
Demonstrated knowledge of and success with core financial management concepts, including budget‑to‑actuals, accruals, forecasting, WIP/AR, realization and collections, write‑offs, and variance/root‑cause analysis.
Ability to cover a wide range and level of tasks, from thinking strategically about future needs and opportunities to troubleshooting details where needed.
Collaborative approach to teaming and future partnering.
Strong focus on details and follow-through for assigned responsibilities.
Creative thinker; able to spot issues and implement practical solutions, especially for long-standing concerns.
Poise and patience under pressure; ability to multi-task.
Superb time management, judgment, decision-making, and problem-solving skills.
Exceptional leadership, and strategic thinking skills.
Exceptional written, verbal, and interpersonal communication and presentation skills.
Strong organizational, prioritization, and project management skills to streamline processes and improve efficiency.
High integrity and professionalism; established credibility and trusted partnership with legal project management team and stakeholders.
Proactive mindset focused on innovation and continuous improvement.
Strong commitment to client service, ethical conduct, and firm values.
Ability to exercise discretion and confidentiality in maintaining firm and client information.
Bachelor’s degree or any combination of training, education, and experience that demonstrates the ability to perform the duties of the position.
Minimum seven (7) years of experience in legal project management or legal operations within a law firm or corporate legal department, with demonstrated expertise in budgeting, forecasting, billing guideline compliance, and stakeholder reporting.
Minimum three (3) years of leadership experience supporting teams in a distributed environment, with proven ability to manage high-visibility and time-sensitive matters.

Responsibilities

Improve the overall execution, efficiency, and accuracy of legal projects, including ownership and completion of specific tasks that address the client(s) needs and expectations for legal operations and projects, with a particular focus on ongoing process improvement to streamline operational tasks and improve client experience.
Document and maintain current and future-state workflows, decision rights, and handoffs to support consistent execution.
Set up and maintain budgets and AFAs, translating pricing proposals into matter-level budgets; manage budget-to-actuals, accruals, and reforecasting; closely monitor matter financial performance, including realization, WIP, collections, and write-offs; recommend interventions to protect revenue and improve profitability.
Ensure outside counsel/billing guideline and AFA requirements are captured, reflected in appropriate systems, and operationalized within the team; monitor adherence and escalate risks.
Provide periodic client program KPI reporting to practice group leadership, individual attorneys, finance, and practice leadership, highlighting variances, risks, and recommended actions.
In partnership with department and attorney leadership, identify and lead process improvements that streamline workflows, reduce administrative burden, enhance compliance and financial outcomes, and improve the overall client experience with the firm.
Develop and maintain playbooks, templates, checklists, and training materials covering scoping, budgeting/AFA lifecycle management, compliance, and reporting; deliver related training and enablement sessions to attorneys and staff; measure adoption and refine materials based on feedback and outcomes.
Socialize and update client-specific guidelines and operational standards to drive consistency across matters and teams.
Coordinate requirements and content structure for collaboration sites, dashboards, and reporting workspaces; partner with support teams for system administration and troubleshooting.
Leverage approved firm technologies (e.g., budgeting, reporting, collaboration) to automate data capture, maintain data quality, and produce reports; identify key insights from reports for leadership along with any recommended actions to address.
Regularly track portfolio trends across the client’s matters, including budget accuracy, realization, collections, and compliance; provide insights to practice and firm leadership, as well as sponsoring partners, as appropriate.
Operate in accordance with firm policies, client agreements, and approved systems; ensure AFAs, discount arrangements, and billing guidelines are set up and maintained properly.
Proactively coordinate between the accounting and legal teams to ensure timely achievement of client deadlines related to budgeting, billing, collections, and other aspects of the revenue cycle.
Serve as a subject matter expert and team member for projects and core processes (ex. continuous improvement projects), gathering learnings, completing analysis, refining process and implementing related change(s), and supporting innovative use of technology.
Maintain high-level confidentiality of firm, client, and attorney information.